DS Record Radar: This Week in Punk Vinyl (Bad Religion, Descendents, Unwritten Law, Mustard Plug & More!)

Bad Religion is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Stranger Than Fiction with a colored vinyl reissue, and compared to most reissues they’re showing a lot of restraint limiting this to just 2 color variants. The Infected Splatter variant is clear w/ red, black and grey splatter and the 21st Century Splatter one is white w/ transparent purple, white, black and silver splatter. Both are limited to 1,000 copies and you can get them here.

The ALL / Descendents split live album Live Plus One has been released on vinyl for the first time, 23 years after its original release on the once-beloved compact disc format (which, for the record) is still beloved by yours truly). Epitaph pressed two variants of this double LP: Sky blue w/ yellow splatter (1,500 copies) and Green / Blue (500 copies). The second one’s already sold out; you can still get the splatter variant right here.

Unwritten Law’s Elva joins the “early 2000s records getting reissued” club with a yuge 5 color variant drop. These are super limited and have already sold out for the most part; you can still get the “Babalon” from Smartpunk, but their exclusive “Evolution” (ruby & blue w/ yellow & black splatter) and “Hellborn” (yellow / magenta / black swirl) are long gone. The Alternative Press exclusive milky clear w/ orange splatter variant limited to 200 copies has also sold out, and from what I can tell Parting Gift Records’ webstore is closed so even if you wanted to buy their exclusive “Seein’ Red” variant you’re SOL. Quite the conundrum!

Though Fat Wreck Chords hasn’t officially announced it themselves, they will be doing a 25th anniversary reissue of Cigar’s 1999 cult skate punk classic Speed is Relative. If you’re impatient you can pre-order it on black vinyl from Amazon and various online record stores such as Skeletunes. If you’re patient, hold out for the inevitable color variant(s) to come from Fat Wreck direct. Street date looks like December 13th.

Ska-punk legends Mustard Plug are following their 2023 album Where Did All My Friends Go? with a new 8-song EP called Hey!. Limited to 300 copies on maroon colored vinyl, this features four brand new songs, their cover of Fugazi’s “Waiting Room”, and a few other goodies. Get it here and catch the band on tour this winter.

Buffalo’s The Abruptors are another ska band that just put out a new record last year, and they’re staying hot with another full-length record coming next month on Asian Man Records! Everything You Know is Wrong was produced by MU330’s Dan Potthast and features 11 brand new tracks. It’s limited to 600 copies on random colored vinyl and you can get it here.

We’re going three for three with awesome new ska records on the Record Radar, but this ones different (in the best way possible). Keep Flying’s guitarist Dustin created a super cool LoFi version of the band’s Daylight EP. Check it out below 👇 and get one of the 100 copies they pressed on vinyl from their merch store.

SoCal melodic punk band Dogwood’s 1997 album Through Thick & Thin is getting its first-ever vinyl release thanks to People of Punk Rock Records. You can get it on three color variants – gold, orchid, and gold / orchid split – as well as CD right here.

Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg is releasing… something? It’s a record! Exactly what’s on that record? No fuckin clue. There’s no tracklist or anything on the product page, just the promise of a “New studio album by MARKY RAMONE with his band MARKY RAMONE’S BLITZKRIEG, in which he covers all-time classics in the Ramone style”. Limited to an unknown # of copies on 180g transparent vinyl. Get it here. And before you get sticker shock, the price is in Argentinian Pesos, not USD 😉

Ramones disciples the Huntingtons’ 1998 album High School Rock is back in print once again thanks to Hey Suburbia Records. They pressed 500 copies on this beautiful yellow w/ blue splatter color variant and you can get it right here.

Slam Dunk Festival is doing something pretty cool this year and releasing exclusive color variants of records by bands who are playing the fest in 2025. The latest to join the club is this 20th anniversary Dropkick Murphys’ The Warrior’s Code reissue on green and white pinwheel colored vinyl, which you can get right here. One of the previously announced exclusives that I missed somehow is this bad ass Sum 41 Heaven :x: Hell splatter color variant.

Our friends at Thousand Islands Records are keeping their eternal hot streak alive, adding Massachusetts melodic punk band Oh the Humanity!’s new album Ground to Dust to their list of bad ass upcoming releases. Check out the brand new single “Gutted” down there 👇 and pre-order the record on translucent blue colored vinyl here and/or “black ice” wax from Sell the Heart Records (US) and Engineer Records (UK).

And we’ll put a bow on this week’s Record Radar in an unconventional manner: with a cassette release! The good people at Tapehead City scored a big time exclusive with this 25th Anniversary reissue of The Shape of Punk to Come by Refused. This is limited to 1,000 copies on an awesome looking UV printed (I had to look up what that means and I’m still not sure) cassette. Dust off your Walkman and pick up a copy from Tapehead City. They did a reissue of Operation Ivy’s Energy a few months ago; I recommend picking that up, too!